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| “ | Dad knows what's best for me. | „ |
| ~ Clay Turner's best known line. |
Clay Turner is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "False-Hearted Judges". He is the teenage accomplice and unofficially adopted son of serial killer Lloyd Wilkes, with whom he assassinates judges who Wilkes believes have abused their power.
He was portrayed by Jeremy Blackman.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Turner was raised by his mother in Stillwater, Oklahoma, until she was arrested and imprisoned on drug charges. Judge Eduardo Mestres ordered him taken away from his mother's custody and placed in a group foster home. After the foster home shut down, Turner was left homeless and drifted to Provo, Utah. There, he met Lloyd Wilkes, who took him in and unofficially adopted him.
Wilkes, who had held a homicidal grudge against the entire legal system ever since a judge denied him custody of his son Eric during his divorce, brainwashed Turner into hating judges as well, making him believe that Mestres was responsible for his misfortunes. He then enlisted Turner as his accomplice in a cross-country killing spree, planning to kill the judges they hated, as well as any others they felt had abused their authority.
Wilkes took Turner to Billings, Montana, where he taught him how to shoot a rifle. Wilkes then had him watch as he shot and killed Judge Irwin Riceman, who had denied him custody of his son after his ex-wife accused him of stalking and domestic violence. They made the murder look like a hunting accident, and then went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Turner shot and killed Mestres, making it look like a robbery. Through it all, Turner swore complete loyalty to Wilkes, to the point that he allowed Wilkes to change his name to Eric, after his real son.
"False-Hearted Judges"[]
Turner and Wilkes travel to New York City, where they set their sights on killing Judge E. Barton, who had incurred Wilkes' wrath for denying a white supremacist prison gang visitation with their families. They break into Barton's house and wait until nightfall, when they shoot and kill Barton and her son and severely wound her husband. The following day, on Wilkes' orders, Turner shoots and kills Judge Roland Thibodeaux, who had ruled against a defendant in an assisted suicide case.
Detectives Robert Goren and Alexandra Eames of the NYPD's Major Case Squad investigate the murders, profiling them as the work of a two-person killing team. Wilkes becomes their main suspect after they discover supportive letters from him to the leader of the white supremacist gang, and they arrest him on minor littering charges in order to draw out his accomplice. Turner visits Wilkes in jail, where he tells him to "stay in control" and chastises him for not exercising enough to keep his shoulder strong - something that, unbeknownst to Turner, he had regularly done with Eric. Wilkes asks Turner to bail him out, to which Turner readily agrees.
After discovering Wilkes' history of abusing and stalking his son and ex-wife, who have since died in a car accident, Goren theorizes that he is using Turner not just as an accomplice, but as a surrogate son. He also deduces that Turner obeys Wilkes absolutely because he views him as the only father he has ever known.
Goren decides to drive a wedge between them by waiting until Turner bails Wilkes out of jail, and arresting Turner for the murders. He then lies to Wilkes, who is unaware of his son and ex-wife's deaths, that Eric is living in South Dakota, but assuring him he can claim Turner as his son by signing an affidavit to that effect. Wilkes signs it after a moment's hesitation, but Turner immediately sees that Wilkes is about to abandon him to go to his real son, and he begs him not to leave. Goren tells Turner that the only way he can keep Wilkes from leaving him is to implicate him in the murders. Turner confesses to the murders he and Wilkes committed, and they are both arrested. Wilkes is sentenced to death and executed, while Turner is sentenced to life in prison.
Trivia[]
- Turner is loosely based on real-life serial killer Lee Boyd Malvo, who in October 2002 acted as John Allen Muhammad's accomplice in a series of sniper shootings, killing 10 people.
- Turner is the second character in the Law & Order universe to be based on Malvo, the other being Justin Lafferty in the original Law & Order.
External Links[]
- Clay Turner on the Law & Order Wiki
